Show ay general P arshi nals S story of the A As ee 1 fie i 1931 in all countries by the north amerl by M newspaper alliance world rights reserved rf fd U the lb scandinavian reproduction la in whole bol V 1911 of la in part fare prohibited TM jocis el pershing 81 N CHAPTER IX continued james stillman still man just returned from a tour of france confirms confirm reports of serious depression situation not hopeful tho meeting of the allied mill tiry tary lenders july 20 which was my cirit brought out little that aa hopeful abo political relations of the th allica allies nere cre touched upon la in a general way but only so far as its they inight affect the military situ aaion llon the most significant recent event of course had been the in RUSSIA Ilus sla arned out with reference to american as rade mith tieta sleta nce I 1 gave are in detail the situ battalion bat tallon stion as to our man power immo old chapel date diets and prospective especially in tho light of the latest I 1 lans of the department and lad particular emphasis on the necessity of add lional shipping A cablegram had just been rec elied in response to mine of july 0 in which I 1 had requested 4 that at least a million men reach france by the fOI following spring this message mess indicating that the war department foresaw small chance of securing the necessary tonnage was wai read to the confer ince once in part as follas dj using all shipping which Is cow in eight sight for the purpose and which will ill be available after month of november the plan proposes to transport to france by june 15 1918 twenty one divisions corn com about men together with auxiliary troops and aud r place ment troops line of communication troops and others amounting to men making a total of men more tonnage needed although stort of my becom lons ions even this schedule could be carried out only by a very large increase of tonnage the other members of the conference southern were of the opinion that if new cd one hunt Just ments could be made there might be chipping shipping for nine or ten of our divisions before spring so for the moment there did not dot seem to be the slight slightest eRt chance of trans appy porting i million men to france by the following foll june after ca canvassing massing the whole situ atlon the conference expressed the opinion that a defensive rule should be adopted on all se andary fronts the british and french representatives hoped that the surplus troops resulting from 0 4 this course might be available to strengthen their armies in france find ad general caldoina Ca doina of course thought the italian armies should bare their share CHAPTER X about this time july 1917 dis tT irbIng reports were mere submitted to ne no confidentially by one of our naval aval officers sent by adm admiral iral sims from london calculations bated upon tonnage losses for may june and july seemed to confirm the con elusions of a month previous that there would soon be insufficient al lied shipping left to bring over an american army of required strength and that the allies would find end it difficult to keep up their food in supply ly from oversea abe the data presented by the naval officer proved that if this rate of destruction could not be reduced the war rould be lost before we could fire a shot ibis this report was certainly most pe pessimistic but it did not dispel my confidence in the success of the plan that had bad been tested and was about to be inaugurated of sending ships over in convoys under the protection of naval vessels adal donal destroyers requested by ad maral sims had by this time largely increased such craft in european waters and alid as a result the aceti atles of submarines had been somewhat bat diminished for july as corn cora pared with april fet yet for the time being ship con truc tion in british yards continued poppies b below elow losses and air shipping rom little board at home jd scarcely r veteran ofa pi cd 1 WT lito r assisting and types AH all tarse facts caused very body to readie the extreme urgency of speed and that in turn gave give come some hope that the prospects ast night might soon become brighter spies get sailing dales the success of submarine war far fare had been largely dependent upon advance knowledge concern ing movements of vessels As there was ao ito doubt that the sailing dates ot of much of our shipping reached germany through spies one baly ay to reduce the danger would be to close tuch such sources of information in the beginning the practice by cur our war deportment of transmit ug secret information was ex loose the th data regarding tailings was of course lent sent to my but at the same tome or often before it vias a as also given to both french and british military and naval attaches and mission in washington they immediately transmitted the nation by cable to their respective govern ments ft iti it i the result that it usual ly beckma almost common knowledge but mare ali re were other sources of Inform atko essed by the enemy one message by the french sent from soma corn wireless ire station in spain to the german re gabral ll 11 1 l ral staff announced the arrival cf several american vessels at nantes ald of american soldiers at st nazaire Naz alre rc and also gave the routes taken by our transports another evidently intended for reported the departure of a com codoy oy of transports tran from new york inese and similar facts were cabled at once to admiral sims and to washington leadership big problem probably the most important factor ID in building dp up an aggressive army Is the selection of leaders INIth nut efficient leadership the fin cst est of troops may buffer suffer defeat by inferior forces skillfully led the following aa as my becom mend atlon to of war baker my observation of british and french armies and most exacting arduous service conditions at the front fully convince me that only officers in full mental and physical vigor should be scat sent here con arary course mean means certain aneff clency in our aenice and possible later humiliation of officers con etnier general officers must un dergo extreme effort in personal supervision of operations in to trenches very few british or french dIvI division slun commanders over forty ee or brigadiers over forty hae figie too mich 01 cb at stake to risk inefficiency through mental or physical defect i strongly becom mend conditions be fully consid ered in making hah appointments and suggest that no officer of whatever rank be sent here for active sen ice who mho la Is not strong and robust in eiery particular officers selected for appointment general officer of line should be those with experience in act liell commanding troops officers not fulfilling above conditions can be usefully cm ern aloyed at home training troops these recommendations were not altogether followed at home in fact very little effort seems to have been made at selection so that some officers without ambition or initiative whose ir efficiency should have been well blown and others whose age and physical condition were such as to dl di qualify them for strenuous service nere mere given im assIgn assignments most of them vere known to me and not a few who under the rule of were commanders of regiments and departments had lacked the energy even to train their commands or themselves in battle exercises where favorable opportunity bail been afforded the policy of the war depau depar ment from beginning to end seemed to he to appoint officers to the bighor grade according to senior ity with the intention of weeding out the inefficient later on this appears to have been the depart ments idea of and the result was practically no selection at all after the appointment of such officers it was a slow process to eliminate then them in the training area the first division was now well fettled settled in its training area in to the region of Gond Goud F jtb 1 th ol 01 bar bat leduc le duc the troops of the dl dt vision bad already established friendly relations with the french peasantry and had bad quickly adapted a la cd themselves to their new mode of life As the natural consequence of me tue financial condition of the frugal french provincial he was wont to profit by the presence of the brit ish and ours ourselves elre and the open handed payday habits of the amer leans served to give some encouragement to this inclination As a result some coolene grew up later between our men and their early frienda in all history I 1 do not believe there bas has ever been an army amy on foreign soil so considerate and observant of the buhta and interests teresta In of the people the beasa peasant t cl class made a strong appeal to every man in the army their simplicity their X 7 1 10 1 IV I 1 ly 1 1 1 4 f 6 1 f 1 J X 41 43 r I 1 breakfast carried it liu and Us ning was s angeles val des near chaumont Donit clit of the american commander in france wre 1 of the soil and the long hour hours of work in to the fields by the old men and find women and 2nd young boys boy I 1 and girt girls remained the constant admiration of our ocr soldiers I 1 am I 1 inclined a cal a ed to think however that the excellent behavior of the men in the first contingent their rather appearance in III fitting uniform uniforms end and their apparent lack of formal discipline created the impression in the minds of the french officials that they were too kindhearted kind hearted to become aggressive fighting troops at the conclusion of my inspect tion of various places chaumont was selected as the b best C st site for our general headquarters it was on our line of communications to the front and cen imily placed as to probable 10 be sectors actor 8 of our opera oper a eions the fine one stone regimental barracks became our headquarters and we were able to obtain ample billeting accommodations ac in houses for all except the enlisted men who were provided with temporary tar racks XI in the organization of our armies for the world war it was evident that if any considerable combers numbers were to be sent abroad an adal lional force would be needed over and above the regular army and the national guard the war depart department went therefore established what was called the na lional army to be composed prin cipully of men who were to come into service through the draft most of the divisions of the national army were organized in august and september 1917 As the time approached to begin the training of the smaller units it was found that after equipping the special troops urgently needed in trance there was as little equipment 41 A I 1 4 fc 11 ar ame fi ig m yank yanks learning to use the bayonet left even for the additional men required to fill all up the national Iati onal guard unfortunately this made it necessary to delay calling out men for the units of the national army however considerable numbers re called into service and ceedee with preliminary instruction but the lack of equipment serf serl bously delayed their progress visiting billeting area areas my diary notes the following paris parts tuesday august 21 1917 Visited billeting areas of forty seventh french and our first division v rath ath general on sunday inspected st SL alzier regular ing station and witnessed frence attack near verdun yes berday visited french hospital at bouilly Sou llly illy returned this morning with M Pain leve minister of war on bis his train As I 1 had accepted general pe talus invitation to see the french offar alve that was to take place 20 1 motored to french gen eral h headquarters oa on the esth accompanied comp aided by colonel palmer and captain boyd and after dinner left wl h b general petain and two or three members of his staff on his train for an inspection of french frencl and american troops the following follow eg ng day we reached gon con crecor rt the neit next morning and be gan tie ile day with a review of the french forty seventh infantry division was paraded on a prominent plateau near Hou delain court this division had been in every serious engagement of the war and its losses had bad been very heavy as could be easily surmised from the youthful appearance of the officers most of whom bad risen from the ranks to replace casualties among their sen seniors lors general petain tola told them that because of its fine one record the division had been ghen the special honor of assisting in the in traction of the american first division accompanied by BrI brigadier gadler gen era pral bundy colonel cruikshank and nd others I 1 took general retain to see ta eane ne of our troops being mined in throwing grenades grenn des and in the use of the french automatic nut rifle an amusing story was told is in connection with grenade in ruction one of the men insisted in throwing his grenade immell bitely after setting the fuse enste instead 1 d f waiting till he slowly counted count ed even which was iry so the explosion would occur AS the grenade reached its destination after being cautioned several times by his oilier the man said captain I 1 jaet just cant hold abele gre grenades rades any longer because I 1 cao can feel him melting g in to my hand 1 we visited several villages village occupied by trench and american t troops r 0 op ai As w we e p through ou our r belleti and impeded the kitchens h eni particularly inquired about the components of our ration end anti the manner of cooking and serving meals the french soldiers were furo libed nine in place of codes cone provided for our men and the allow ances differed in other respect oun ours containing a larger meat ment corn COM but when it came to cook ing the french were ahead of us although our men preferred our out own food to either the french 01 british ration motoring to bouilly Sou llly illy the head quarter quarters of the french second army we met major general fay olle commanding the group of armies of the center and major general guillaume comman deio the second army hose chief of 0 staff explained in detail the plan of 0 the battle thant was to tako take place next day we had lur chcon with general fayolle whom later I 1 came to regard as one of the ablest of 0 the french generals in appear ance ante be he was rather frail no longer young but active and alert on our vist to the military hospital at general retain petain decorated adlle de daye a nurse with the crola de do guerre as she lay on a cot suffering from a severe wound inflicted by a piece of shell obell two days before 1 athen I ben he told her who I 1 was she said bald 1 I am aad glad you are here general to see bow a french woman con can suffer tor for her country she was so happy how ever that I 1 am sure that for the moment the had bad entirely forgotten her maln gees sees french attack the attack of the second french army although made astride the mense meuse river was directed principally against mort blomme and hill wa both famous in the of 1916 to destroy the wire entanglements and demolish trenches as a precaution against heavy losses the infantry assault was preceded by four days con sinuous bombardment and rela lively the amount of artillery am expended exceeded that of any previous engagement its value being as I 1 remember 14 it some the proportion of the artillery force as compared to the infantry in this battle was as eleven to ten the firing bring attained such precis lol and volume that the german troops in the forward positions were submerged and the attacking infantry reached most of its objectives by nightfall the crat day making an advance of five fire kilometers and ca cap P luring turing 6 prisoners the sector where the th french attak took place was as to have bare a peculiar pecullar interest for me before the end of the war ar my headquarters as commander of the first army one year later occupied the building in So Sou llly ulily then used by major gen oral eral and the line reached by Corvis arts troops in to the battle became our jumpoff jump 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